3.287 The Intercessor

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It is a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

You know, every now and then I come across a word for Jesus Christ in the scriptures that I haven't thought of for a long time, or haven't really focused on in terms of that general takeaway list that we tend to go to. Today is one of those words, and it's one that I hope sticks with me now for a lot longer than it has before. We are reading this week Isaiah chapters 58 through 66, and inside of it we're going to go into Isaiah 59.

Before we get to our actual verse, I'm just going to sneak kind of a preface of it. We get this list on the beginning of all these people that are separated from Israel. Isaiah 59:16.

It says, "And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness it sustained him." Now, the term intercessor is more commonly used for us as a mediator or an advocate. And those two terms are some of my favorite terms when referencing Jesus Christ.

I love the mediator. I love the story that the Church puts out — it's not animated, but the story that Elder Boyd K. Packer, I think it is, tells about "The Mediator" and his role in coming to help the man kind of save his farm after he had done some bad choices and stuff.

But this context of mediator and advocate is one that I can hold on to. It's the term intercessor that came across to me that I thought, "Wow, there's a new one to focus on." Here's someone that comes in to kind of help in a situation where someone's being picked on or someone's down and out or someone's being taken advantage of. And in comes the intercessor to make everything better and to take care of the situation and to make things right.

And that's the situation that we have on the front end of Isaiah 59, even due to our own choices or the choices of others as they separate us. And as we have a hard time feeling our Savior's love, in comes the Savior as intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness it sustained him.

Inside of that phrase, "Therefore his arm brought salvation," there's a footnote there that says, "The Lord brought salvation to man." That's it right there. My friends, the Lord is our mediator. Jesus Christ stands between us and our sins as we turn to him and repent of our decisions, our bad choices, those things that we make.

Thank you for watching. Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.